ABSTRACT
This chapter elucidates the key issues raised by the controversy surrounding the impacts and effects of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination. The HPV vaccine has been marketed as the first vaccine targeted to prevent the main causes of cervical cancer. Medical tests suggest that the vaccination also protects against the core causes of penile cancer, anal cancer and genital warts. The HPV vaccine was licensed in both the EU and the US in 2006. Since then, it has been administered to millions of girls and young women and a growing number of boys and young men. The vaccine is part of routine vaccination programs in 64 countries. It has been estimated that the HPV vaccine has been given to 47 million women worldwide, preventing an estimated 345,000 cases of cervical cancer and 156,000 deaths among vaccinated women. While reports issued after medical testing suggest that the side effects of the vaccine are limited, some countries have seen growing skepticism towards the vaccine emerge after adverse effects were reported in the media. The chapter discusses two television documentaries which focused on the possible side effects of the HPV-vaccine, examining the influence of these documentaries and other negative media coverage on Danish and Irish parents’ deselection of the HPV-vaccine. In order to unpack the problems and issues that fall out from the HPV case, the chapter is situated within the wider theoretical framework of the risk society thesis. To this end, we elucidate the various ways in which the twin dynamics of risk and individualization play out in both competing discourses surrounding the HPV vaccination and public responses to its administration. Reflecting on the risk society context of declining trust in science, interrogation of expert systems and the individualization of risk - manifested primarily in personalized forms of choice and decision-making - we examine issues around competing truth claims and the connections between risk communication and personalized forms of ‘choice’ and decision-making.”
